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ArcPy, the Python interface for ArcGIS Desktop/ArcGIS Pro, allows you to work with geographic datasets and invoke the powerful tools that have been developed by ESRI for analyzing and visualizing geospatial. This talk will provide an overview of the functionality exposed by the ArcPy API and demonstrate how these functionalities can be invoked. Python can be used to invoke any of the built-in tools for processing geospatial data (e.g., finding buffer zones to identify streams near proposed highways, intersecting geospatial data layers to find overlap of historical habitat and urban sprawl, calculating changes in landscapes with raster algebra, and so forth). Attendees will learn how to interpret the ArcPy help documentation and how Python can be used to call geoprocessing tools, to programmatically manage proprietary GIS data formats (list and describe the data), read and modify proprietary data formats such as shapefiles with arcpy, work with ArcGIS map documents, generate custom ArcGIS GUIs. Our speaker, Laura G. Tateosian, is a professor at the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University where she leads an active research program in geovisualization and recently authored a textbook on Python for ArcGIS. Her lab works with geoparsing, eye trackers, and open source web mapping and visualization tools to investigate plant disease spread and human trafficking and to develop innovative digital reading environments. She earned her B.A. in Mathematics from Towson University, her M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma, and her Ph.D. in computer science from North Carolina State University. She teaches Python Geospatial Programming and Geovisualization in the Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. and the Master’s in Geospatial Information Science and Technology. She has traveled extensively and likes to body surf. Extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration are also welcome and don't need to be pre-announced. Plenty of free after hours parking is available in the upper level of the deck behind WebAssign (turn through the median just before the intersection of Varsity and Main Campus Drives). If the door is locked, call the number posted on the door. An after-meeting location for food and beverage will be decided at the meeting (usually BaDa Wings at Mission Valley).